she's only 26? how does he do it? tracy: he was 60 when she was born, 60. >> less than 30 days to go, anywhere closer to a deal of the fiscal cliff? if you listen to lawmakers, the answer is no, but cumberland advisers thinks a compromise is brewing. >> hundreds of thousands of cars destroyed by hurricane sandy, but as drivers rush to replace them, you may be forced to pay a higher price. >> huh. a car salesmen or congressmen? who do americans trust the least? the new numbers and lou dobbs taking up that up. >> how apple is expanding its empire into the crib. >> my goodness. there's little siri there and little macbook. goinged to floor of the new york stock exchange, and, lauren,

economic data, down just a little bit in the red today, down 22 points 37 >> yeah, it is the first trading day of the new month. december, a strong month historically for the stocks, but there's a push and pull going on between market forces and the economic data, and we're in the red across the board, relatively flat this monday morning. the data, u.s. manufacturing activity last month lowest level since the summer of 2009, but then we got a construction spending report that was good. in october, it rose by the largest amounts in five months, and then we got auto sales throughout the morning, and while they were decent, gm, toyota, and chrysler missed november's estimates, but ford beat them. that's the data and push and pull among the markets, back to you. >> lauren, thanks so much. >> 12995 where it ends, nobody knows. take a gamble. talks in a standstill, timothy geithner blaming republicans

saying they have to raise taxes in order to avoid going over the cliff. rich edson in washington with the latest, rich? >> they are stuck on this offer, which the white house says is less of an offer and the same position the administration staked out in its jobs bill and deficit proposal over the last couple years. half trillion in tax increases or trillion and a half in tax increases, $600 billion in spending cuts, more spending, and a permanent increase in the debt ceiling. on fox news sunday, boehner called that deal a joke. >> just flabbergasted. i looked, and said, you can't be serious? i just never seen anything like it. we got seven weeks between election day and the end of the year. three of those weeks have been wasted with the nonsense. >> okay. you heard them, the first time in two decades now, acknowledge they want revenues up as the balanced plan, a good first steppedded, but they have to say

what they do operates and revenues. that's hard for republicans. >> runs of billions of spending cuts, tax increases begin in less than a month, and with the negotiations, two sides are about where they started. still, aids say it's early to be moving to an agreement with plenty of time for each side to extract the best deal possible before selling it to the parties and selling position to voters. with that, president obama is hosting a twitter question-and-answer next hour. back to you. >> signs on for that. rich, thank you. >> time is returning out on the fiscal cliff, and the next guest thinks there's a deal brewing, optimistic. that's david, adviser's chairman and chief investment officer. what do you think is the key to getting a deal done? do you think something's brewing? >> i think something is brewing, melissa. you heard mcconnell use the word "revenue," new, had not

heard that in years. maybe he's going to go to a wedding, i don't know, but we got his attention. revenues. all of the sudden -- >> we all know revenue means a number of things, and if can be code for closing loop loopholes and deductions, and not actually raising the marginal rate. as awless, devra davis in the detills, and i'm not sure they are closer to the devil at this appointment. we won't get close to the devil until december 31st at 11:59, and we may go over, come back, and bounce from the cliff. that's what it takes. it's ow system. it's a rotten system. it's the one that we have. all of this posturing, boehner and geithner, this is going to go on. >> yeah. >> neither one will publicly give an inch until the deal's made, and then they'll all praise themselves for being heroic. >> that's probably true. in the mean tile, though, the rest of us have to protect our

assets and make plans, and, i mean, apparently these guys don't have to pay bills or worry about the credit card rate, but the rest have to deal with the things on a regular basis. how do you protect yourself as they try to work out the problem? >> well, i think the issue is this. i have clients who don't know what to do. get out of the market and sit on the cash. if the client sighs i want to do that, i let them. i don't argue because there are morons in washington, what can i do? if they say, what do you think? i say, low income rates, economy recovering slowly, housing coming back, if you stay through the turmoil, you'll have higher markets after its over, and maybe much higher so my view is yoo stay invested, broadly diversified, etfs to do it. >> you had me until much higher markets on the other side. what makes you think that? as an investor, it it's a higher

tax, straightforward math. if you raise tax on dividends and capital gains, makes stocks less valuable in the long run, a less appetizing choice. you mentioned housing on the way back. holding assets for a long time, buy housing, gold stocks, something to sit? >> well, you have a diversify, and stocks are under owned, one. the monetary policy is predictable for years, and it's a low, low interest rate so now you say what are the relative choices? go by a high grade tax free bond, 3% interest. i can buy stocks, a 2%-plus dividend, could tax higher, but the dividends rise. i can get into a market cheaply if i believe earnings grow over time, say, the rest of the decade. that's my time horizon. for me, that works. i'll let the politicians knock themselves out. they are all worth lest.

what can i do about it? >> they are. and on that note, always a pleasure, thanks for coming on. >> thanks, melissa. >> oil just off a two week high here, a pair of reports show how the manufacturing sector does around the world contracting ii the u.s.. not good after two months. phil flynn joins me now from the pit of the cme wflt latest, phil? >> $90 a barrel for the first time in three weeks. that was a big move there in the oil market. pulled back a little bit. the key thing is looking at china, the oil demand terrible all summer. started to rebound in september with a record high for amount of demand #* demand. in october, they hit the third highest month on record for demand, a strong manufacturing number means, of course, that oil demand could be another record this month into december. this is the high demand period in china, very, very supportive for the market. that doesn't matter. if the u.s. is in recession, if the informerring sector falls

off the cliff, that lowers expectations, and temper the increase now, but from the big picture per specttive, a rebound in chinese manufacturing probably means a rebound in crude oil prices in the coming months. >> you know, phil, it's warm here in the northeast. unseasonably warm, actually. natural gas up for the first time in four sessions. just jiggering here? what's causing the jump? >> well, forecast says we might be in warrant -- winter after all. forecasts could colder. i'm not buying it. we rallied weeks ago because it was to be cold. we're sweating in chicago. the natural gas market is in trouble, not just because of the weather, but new pipelines opening this month from north dakota, feeding more into storage in the next couple months, very difficult to overcome that unless it gets cold real quick. >> yeah, i don't know which i'm rooting for. skiing or warmth. [laughter]

>> there you go. >> i'm going to go for warmth, but you'll go for skiing knowing you. >> yeah. >> phil, always a pleasure, sir. >> thank you, guys, thank you. >> the president facing the biggest challenge yet for a move to near absolute power. the late e-as the country's judges, newspapers, and tv networks all fight back. >> boy, anyone's guess where the points, below 13,000, but medals, i blew the break, gold, silver, copper moving higher. we're back after this. ♪

>> you know what that means, charles payne joining us now with what you need to know to make money. this hour, stocks solidly in the green today. good picks talked about before. >> absolutely. the theme, like 70's action. >> very action. >> something like that. two weeks ago, we talked about deckers, those ugly uggs, stock exploded, up 23% in two weeks. if anyone did it that day, and what i would do, take profits on half and use trailing stop now, 40s to stop. that's a big move in a short period of time. >> what else other than uggs?

>> i think they have -- >> that's right. >> other things, but that's the big moneymaker for them. there's another beaten down stock that's high risk, but could be huge. diamond foods, okay -- >> that's what it's about; right? >> everybody knows the brand. kettle chips, pop secret, but management is horrendous. absolutely horrendous. got rid of the ceo, took back $3 million from the guy and restated numbers. they lost faith. the stock probably will never get back to where it was. they never regrain it, but all-time high and where they are trading now. the dilemma, rather, is spending, advertising. pull out spending, and, of course, they lose market share, but mar gyps are better. that's a delegate thing for them. products, emerald breakfast to go. >> what's that? >> a nut and gray --

granola thing. the other brands are so-so, but from evaluation point of view, i like diamond, the volume in the the last three to four sessionsment again, i think, though, you have to be very, very careful with it, a tight stop. >> a short term play? >> we'll talk about that in the next two weeks. 40% is short. wall street betting on this thing to go down. >> no deals or anything like that, but hold course considering the management troubles of the past. >> oh, yeah. they just have to clean up the act. again, every company i watched over the last 25 years with this sort of embarrassment, they never regainedded totally, but, from time to time, trading vehicles. >> popcorn is a staple. >> pop secret, people love it. they wanted to take over prink les, and people like, can you afford pringles. >> those are delicious. >> not really potato chips. i love them, but they are not

chips. >> delicious and salty. what else do you need. >> all about the salt. >> sounds like me fingers. nevermind, headed in the wrong direction. >> my goodness. >> well, i just ate lunch. >> better eating habits. lauren on the floor, talk about delta. >> i dip my chocolate chips in chocolate. there you go. >> i like that. >> see you guys later. >> later. >> delta airlines, shares down the airlines are actually down, but up according to the numbers, and this is expected in the space, a little bit of profit taking now. singapore airlines is in talks to sell 49% stake in virgin atlanta, and reportedly, delta would be one of the interested bbyers in virgin atlantic, second largest carrier at heathrow, after delta airlines, that could be why they are trying to get in.

delta down 2%, year to date, up 21% and the past year, 16%. back to you. >> thank you, thank you. >> protests continue in egypt as president morsi opponents are expected to march on the office tomorrow for kris schism of the draft constitution that will be voted on in less than two weeks. judges said it will not supervise the vote on december 15th. after the draft was quickly approved last week by islamist nominated panel egypt's top court forced to suspend to work in crowds, supporters appeared outside to protest. a planned hearing on whether or not the asemibly that approved the draft was legitimate. they are taking offense to limitations in the draft constitution. 1 # 1 newspapers vowed not to publish tomorrow. a privately owned television network plans to go dark all

day. >> wasn't the arab spring a year and a half ago. like setting up to do if again. >> it feels that way. %-want to seal the deal orn that congressmen that can't get a deal done? two -- who americans trust the e least. >> hundreds of thousands of cars destroyed by the hurricane sandy, but automobiles flocking back as drivers flock to the dealership. a view from the showroom just ahead. ♪ she keeps you guessing.

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>> # 1 minutes past the hour, i'm lauren green with the fox news minute. white house reporting president obama will take questions on twitter at 2 p.m. eastern time, about the fiscal cliff all part of the white house's my2k twitter campaign w-9 president drumming up support for taxes on the rich. george hw bush in stabbe condition after receiving stream for a bronchitis-related cough. the 88-year-old has been in the hospital for a week receiving treatment visited by several of

his children including former president george w. bush. the royal family getting a new member. the st. james' palace saying they are expecting a baby. the queen and members of the both pams are delighted with the news. the duchess is in the very early stages of pregnancy. those are the head lines. >> oh, that's fun. a royal baby. >> yes, thank you, lauren greern. >> sure. >> to charlie, the president must want fat cats to support the plan to end the fiscal cliff impasse. we have the behind the scene meetings between the executives. >> caught a lot of people by surprise. it was last week where deputy secretary of state, tom nides, went to the city, held a series of meetings, which senior wall street executives, the two meetings i know about, larry fink, the ceo of black rock, and james foreman --

>> such buddies. >> who? >> you and larry fink. >> we'll deal with that later. might not be after this story. the ceo of morgan stanley, basically broad based talks, dinner meetings. what did they talk about? the fiscal cliff and where wall street stands in in thing, ut what's interesting, i think, is that wall street has -- it becoming increasingly vocal about these things. you heard them speak up last week, and gorman sent and e-mail to two brokers urging them to force congress to do a balancedded approach, stealing a line from president obama. what's interesting about the issues is it looks like wall street is now teaming up with the president, despite the fact they supported mitt romney. they are now teaming up -- >> eating you, crawling back? >> looks like they are forcing -- they are forcing the issue, and, basically, supporting the president's position on this for higher taxes on those upper brackets.

little bit of background on tom. he was a senior executive at morgan stanley in a very big democratic operative, a senioo executive, then to be hillary clinton's number two of secretary of state, and rumored, rumor, it's in the wall street washington nexus, that if jack lew is treasury secretary, highly likely if you read the tea leaves, he gets jack's job as the chief of staff. interesting meeting. this guy is a key player in the obama administration. you know, there's lots of taj about coming back to wall street. he likes it down there, and he likes working there, and that he wants a higher position, and, you know -- >> down in wall street or washington? >> washington. washington's south; right? >> of here. >> wall street's south of here too. >> but down, down there.

the meetings are about keeping people, i think, in line. we should point out that larry fink is on the treasury secretary short list. you know, i think this is jack lew's to lose, so to speak. that's what people say on wall street. if he's well in the budget negotiations, meaning, you know, basically, jamming most of the president's proposals down the republicans' throat, looks like he gets the job. that's where we are now. it's interesting watching wall street kiss up to the president on this. >> it is interesting. >> there is nobody, no economic perp i talked to who really thinks that this is the time to raise marginal taxes, even on the rich, the alleged rich, which really are not too rich if you live in new york and the coast, and not only that, but hits small businesses. you have a small business -- >> raises just enough to run the government for a week and a half or gets us closer to solving the problem. >> the real issue here is that if you, if you think of fairness, okay, you're warren

buffet, you make billions. you will be taxed at the same personal income tax rate as a small business that makes $250,000 a year. >> that's a great point. >> and employees ten people. >> how is that fair when he's calling for fairness and that's the solution. >> absurd thing to do right now. >> true. great point. >> wall street and white house relationship ebbing and flowing because wall street backed romney, now regrouping, obama and the cliff. >> it's interesting. when you see the private meetings with them, you know, the same guys, not mentioning names, who are, you know, just a couple months ago ago called obama everything but a socialist, saying, well, you know, they are talked balanced approach, all the nonsense, and it's really not a balanced approach. we point out that, you know, wall street executives make much more than $250,000 a year; right? that's the base pay on top of bonuses, you know. >> so true, all true. charlie, thanks so much. well, will santa bring you a new

sleigh? november awe -- auto sales coming up. >> when two day shipping is too slow? retailers racing to keep up the trend of instant gratification in shopping. look at today's winners and losers on the s&p here heading to break. advanced micro trieding up better than 7%. we'll be right back. ♪

melissa: time for stocks now as we do every 15 minutes. let's head to the floor of new york stock exchange. lauren simonetti standing

by. dell getting a nice upgrade today. >> yes, did you see shares of dell today? up more than 4%, third best performer on the s&p 500. essentially a goldman sachs doing a 180 on the stock. had a sell for two years. upgraded two notches to a buy and upgraded the price target by $4, to $13 a share. it is $10 right now. it still has some room to go according to goldman sachs. they say they know the pc industry is weak. that is already baked into the stock. and quote, we could see sentiment in expectations postively in 2013. back to you. lori: thanks so much, lauren. >> sure. lori: gm missing expeccations for november sales but ford crushed it. sales up 6% over last year. chrysler had the best november in five years, with 14.4% increase, it wasn't good enough to beat the 16% analysts were looking for. superstorm sandy having an impact as well. customers in the northeast headed to dealerships with

insurance checks in hand giving them so-called wealth effect. we have the foxnews.com automotive editor with sandy ace impact on car sales and overall industry check as well. great to see you. >> you too. lori: talk about sandy. we saw cars literally floating out to see. you automatically thought this would be a boon for the auto industry. what was your take? >> definitely helped. there were 200 to 250,000 cars destroyed. not quite that many were sold last month but played into the increase we saw to a certain extent. used car sales were not up as much. true car.com estimating 4%. lori: give the time of year i was reading that the storm and length of time on average people holding onto the cars is like 11 years is actually giving support to overall car prices. can you comment on that? >> yes. sales, transaction prices were up. so were incentives. so kind of balanced itself a little more. people are spending more on cars. shoving a lot of technology

into them. you could spend $30,000 on a compact car these days. lori: getting back to the storm's impact in terms of kind of cars people are buying, we saw gas lines and gas shortages was a huge part of this crisis. did more people go to hybrids? >> hard to say if sandy had anything to do with that but there is growth there. ford had increase of 75% up from small cars from last year. that tremendous growth and hybrid sales going up. lori: ford crushed it. was hybrids part of it? >> ford had a good month. chrysler was up 14%. they are seeing great growth since getting back on their feet. ford pickup sales did well as ram truck division. shows economy is getting better. a lot are sold to businesses and that sort of t

expectations. gm had criticism because a lot of sales are driven by government purchases. we as taxpayers own a significant share of gm that is little questionable. >> gm premium brands saw most growth, buick, cadillac and gmc. chevrolet was kind of flat. last year at this time they had heavy incentives they didn't meet this time around so sales were down. pickup trucks were down. they have new vehicles are coming next year. they're clearing out new current models. they hurt on pickup salls. premium brands are hurting as well. premium and luxury brands

are doing well. lori: where is at toe industry related to historic highs? >> this is ahead of expectations this year. definitely really good and it is growing. whether or not the fiscal cliff happens we'll see if things change. for right now consumers don't seem to be concerned. lori: i was trying to avoid the topic. always talking about the fiscal cliff. i will say good-bye. no fiscal cliff. thank you, gary. pressure. melissa: the problem with online shopping used to be you had to wait in order to get what you ordered but not anymore. retailers are racing to keep up with the new trend of instant gratification shopping with same die delivery. amazon started it. now ebay, google even wal-mart are doing it. they battle who can do it faster and cheapest they only offer same day delivery in selected cities using courier companies like ups -pthe problem with economics of ame day delivery are challenging. analysts estimate the

services are money-losers at least for now. kind of makes sense. almost like the airlines of the ones one guy does something everybody else has to do it to compete. lori: nuclear arms race. if you disarmed you would be on equal playing field. melissa: we get used to it and spoiled. to a certain extent you don't know somebody is charging more for the product but you want it that same day. like free same day shipping. >> free shipping with holiday gifts ii melissa: love it. lori: you know what i bought on amazon? melissa: what? lori: "diary of a stage mother's daughter". melissa: i love you. lori: don't forget where your allies are. microsoft angling for a greater share the mobile market but will they pay pc prices? melissa: america's opinion of the least trustworthy profession. that is just ahead.

>> i'm robert gray with your fox business brief. stocks moving lower as investors remain focused on washington and the fiscal cliff negotiation. right now the dow is near the lows of the session, off by 52 points. fifth and pacific named former kenneth cole cole chief executive paul blum to lead the juicy couture brand. he takes over as ceo effective immediately. the company in october lowered the full-year forecast and blamed the short fall on sagging sales at juicy. selling its computers is services to equifax for a billion dollars in cash.

csc faced several challenges over the past year including a dispute over its contract to provide electronic patient records for britain's national health service. that is the latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper

lori: in congress we trust? not so much. new "gallup poll" shows half of americans, 54% have a low or very low opinion of congressional honesty and ethics. believe it are not that is i am prochlt from last year when 64% of the americans gave them low marks. lou dobbs is here. only job seen more untrustworthy was car salesman and i think that is insult to car salespeople. >> what is interesting to me, everyone worked really hard for the ratings in that survey. you know what is missing from this? there was no survey of small businessmen and women in the country. they hire just about 70% of

the folks who need jobs. they're not even in the survey but what have we got? we've got lawyers. we've got insurance salespeople. i mean that is all good but how about getting a little broader as to congress, come on, this surprise anybody that congress is held in something less than high esteem? what surprises me they don't have, just politicians broadly. how about mayors and governors, well governors are in here. but broadly to the state legislatures and you know, just to give us a real good feeling about the country's politicians. lori: they wanted to make a point about their own frustrations with the fiscal cliff beyond that or before that. >> what you're witnessing now, i would love to see them take this, put this out, do the interviews today after geithner made the rounds yesterday. if anybody thinks he gets, i would put him right there with car salespeople personally. he doesn't seem to have an understanding of the problem

and doesn't seem to have a grasp of the solution. so he is turning to john boehner to say why don't you do what we couldn't do or won't do? this is really amazing to watch this administration. presidents are supposed to lead, take the initiative, persuade others, create a national consensus. what does he do? he goes out to a toy, he goes out to a toy factory and wants another quarter trillion dollars in spending. i can't imagine why people are somewhat, well suspicious of our politicians given that. melissa: when you talk to people, they're so frustrated by what they see. they want to tune it out. turn back to their family in their own community. it is hard not to gauge. >> let's be real honest. that's what they have already done. that's why we're in this condition. we saw the president even lose 7 1/2 million votes from 2008 to this past november. we've got a lot of people retreating and becoming more insular instead of being engaged. melissa: yeah. >> republicans walking

around whining about this president instead of doing something. the republicans were beaten because they doesn't do anything. they didn't have a ground like to call it, a ground operation. what they really mean is, they do anything about expanding the discussion of their values and what they want to accomplish from the local to the state to the national level. and so i love it when republicans whine as well as the democrats. lori: quick point on the cliff debate, it is frustrating to me when we look at last couple years we see the 11th hour deals literally before the end of the year on taxes and payroll tax holiday and extending the bush-era tax cuts. you they the next couple weeks are insignificant you know all in the media is being played. president does twitter q&a and response from boehner. the whole thing is nonsensical. >> we're looking not to be played and one of the ways we're doing that to point out, for example, the republicans have been

incentivized to simply stand up and say until you come to the table and literally come to the table with john boehner and the president leading that discussion, at a given table on a given set of parameters to go forward, not much is going to happen. secondly they have incentivized the republicans to say, you know that sequestration deal? $1.22trillion in budget cuts and $600 billion in tax increases, you know what? if that is the best deal on the table, mr. president, the heck with you. we'll go with you. we'll accept your deal because that deal was created between both parties, the president and congress. and nobody can deny that. lori: perspective for you. thanks, lou. >> you got it. lori: you can catch lou every day with melissa and me at this time of course 7:00 and 10:00 eastern. tonight, michael roo mere recent for investors business weekly. that will be a great segment. >> will be a lot of fun. melissa: as we do every 15 minutes let's check the markets. lauren simonetti on the

floor of the new york stock exchange. supervalu could be up for sale. >> exactly. supervalu shares are up do more than 10%. if you look at the stock of the supermarket chain, own albertson's, save a lot, et cetera, they're down more than 67% this year. the news is according to "the wall street journal" over the weekend private equity firm cerberus management exploring options for supervalu. sell all of it or part. that part likely the albertson's part. supervalu might have something going on. they have cut jobs, closed stores, suspended dividend, replaced ceo all in the past year. melissa: lauren, thank you so much. lori: every company under the sun rushing to pay there may be a serious downside. we'll get to that next. melissa: forget about the ipad and iphone, it is i baby. how apple is extending its

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melissa: so a couple of warning signs for microsoft as new data paints a not so rosy picture for the tech giant and its new tablet. shibani joshi joins us with all the details. >> melissa, i will broaden the discussion here showing that even the stock prices already heeding these warning signs getting picked up by technology experts and

data points out there. if you look at microsoft shares over the last three months, they are down 13%. just in the last month down about 10%. that's because the high hopes that microsoft is pinning on windows 8 and its new tablet lineup may not be panning out as the company has hoped. we got new data out from npd. just yesterday showing us windows 8 sales aren't doing sort of the revival of the pc industry, aren't contributing to the revival of the pc industry as many people haa expected. in fact, npd has said that pc sales, remember, everyone thought windows 8 would come out, pcs, the overall industry would get a boost, they're actually down 21% in the first four weeks of windows 8 being available. compare that to the first four weeks. the first week that windows 7 came out, a boost in pc sales about 47%. but the company still maintains it sold 40 million licenses. they account for their data

in very different ways. npd looks at retail channel. windows, microsoft talking about a broader scope here. things not panning out as investors had hoped. i think the stock is showing early signs of that as i mentioned. the stock is down in the latter part of this year. melissa: interesting. shibani joshi, thanks so much. lori: growing number of companies fear fiscal cliff tax hikes are coming so they're borrowing lots of money to pay out special dividends. melissa: caution though. there is a nasty and dangerous side-effect investors and companies ought to be aware of. liz macdonald is here with the emac's bottom line. >> this sounds great. a early christmas present ahead of the year. companies giving special dividends, 163 companies so far. they're borrowing as you point out. credit agencies are saying hold on, wait a second. booz allen rating got cut by moody's. costco.

brown foreman and carnival, also moody's saying look it, we're giving you a credit negative warning. you're borrowing money to pay out these special dividends. melissa: crazy. >> sounds like a great idea because of tax hikes are coming on dividends. the issue, a lot of companies have insiders who own a lot of shares in the company. look at costco. the ceo there is saving about, i think billion $4 million. he will get $14 million personally in dividends, accelerated into this year in advance of the gas hike. the issue with this gentleman, he has been out there, saying americans have to pay their fair share. all about tax fairness. banging the drum about that. board members are banging the drum. charlie monger is on the board of costco saying i'm for a vat. bill gates's father is for raising estate taxes. the father sits on the board of costco. the thing is, 1% shouldn't be clamoring about tax hikes when they're getting special

dividends accelerated into this year. melissa: they're gaming it. >> that's right. the other issue writing yourself a special dividend check before taxes go up. you know what is really special about this. 174 companies issuing special dividends because that is indicator taxes will go up..3 we only saw 74 in 2010 when there was threat to get rid of bush tax rates. lori: this is using cash they were criticized for not touching. >> that's a great point. but not using it on m&a. issuing special dividends. lori: can't win. >> they are winning in some way, right? lori: true. melissa: thanks so much. >> sure. melissa: baby fury. how about baby mac? a new trend of i baby names. they issue most popular baby names for 2012. they didn't make the top 100 the survey found apple, siri and mac surged in popularity.

the name apple for girls. jumped 15 in popularity from last year. who can forget the name, mac is up 12%. siri is personal assistant on iphone. this name up 5% on list for growth. penelope with 46. aubry was 28. lori: my aunt is actually siri, s, i, r, i. melissa: predates the iphone. lori: thanks for the shoutout to my family. big baby news. kate and william, royal baby on the way. what will they name it? melissa: siri or mac or ipad. prince ipad. can you imagine. there you go. probably not. coming up tonight on "money", 30-year-old entrepreneur jason sadler, joins me to discuss why he is subletting his name, speaking of names to the highest bidder for a year. his plans for raking in financial awards considering

bids are over $30,000. lori: just his name? melissa: he changes his last name for a year. he changes it legally in florida. he does all the marketing. and does tweeting. it is funny. he has done a bunch of things like this. he said he made half a million dollars last year doing different kinds of people mows and gimmicks. -- promos. lori: anything to make a buck these days. rich people in france and britain are saying bye to higher tax rates. are americans next? maybe not. tracy byrnes next on fox business. want to y to crack it? yeah, that's the way to do it!

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>> talked a lot about baby names today. and it is fun picking a name but you have to actually raise the child. that is the hard part. >> that was it. fun is over. you pick the name. the fun is gone. it was all over. >> you have three children.

tracy: they have to live up to the name. that is tough. i don't know how you live up to apple. [all talking at once] tracy: i bet he can flip the c. there you go. >> on that note, take it away, guys. tracy and dennis. tracy: good afternoon. i am tracy byrnes. >> i'm dennis kneale. no progress on the fiscal cliff and no plans to even talk about it. when will the white house and congress get serious about making a deal? tracy: on december 31st. dennis: the president is taking to twitter. we'll the latest all hour. tracy: fears of higher taxes caused tax-free muni bonds to popularity but is it too late to find any bargains? jack hough says no. he tells us where the deals are. dennis: the looming fiscal cliff doesn't seem to stop americans from buying new cars. edmunds analyst jessica caldwell breaks down a

surprising strong month for automakers but will it last? tracy: time to check stocks as we do every 15 minutes. we head down to the lauren simonetti on the floor of the new york stock exchange. they are slipping but just off the lows of the day. >> off the lows of the day. but the dow and s&p 500 giving up about a third of a percent each right now. the nasdaq is down three points. off the lows. the low for the dow this session is 12,969. we're a little above it but seems like the market wants to end the day in the red. we got conflicting data. construction spending was favorable in october. but manufacturing surprisingly contracted in november here in the u.s. so that is some we're getting. show you a big winner. that is dell, the third best performer out of the s&p 500 right now. goldman sachs upgrading the stock from a sell all the way to a buy and giving it a $13 price target from $9. dell is one of your big winners today. back to you. tracy: merry christmas,

dell. lauren, see you in fit teen minutes. all right, more on stocks. earlier today the s&p 500 and nasdaq traded above their 50-day moving averages. this for the first time in more than a month but an unexpected contraction in u.s. manufacturing last month sent them back below those levels. so for more where we're headed, stocks are headed, everything in general, mark luschini, chief injechlt strategist at janney montgomery scott. i'm glad you're here with us. mark, it is so touch-and-go and we're seeing a lot of people pull their gains into 2012. does that mean 2013 off the bad will be shot? >> well, i think you're seeing a little bit of that and certainly that has the potential to put a little pressure on equity prices. today's reading on ism manufacturing is comparedtive to the other reading of late. which is to say business conditions have slowed somewhat as business owners said so much that in anticipation of the fiscal cliff and not knowing what

it is going to mean to the economy they have been basically reining in business spending and hiring. i think actually it sets up for release of pent-up demand if you will in 2013 which could help the economy reaccelerate. dennis: mark, it seems to me like we've never been farther apart. with what geithner said this weekend, the only way we have compromise if the republicans raise rates on the rich. i'm just wondering, aren't we going off this cliff? >> well, dennis, i think we're likely to go off of it. the question is whether it is rendered into a slope versus a cliff. at this juncture seems unlikely give the fact we have a lame-duck congress. we have 20 days until the end of the year, the triggerr the fiscal cliff. obviously as you said, increasing acrimony across party lines as opposed to the happy talk we heard just after the election. i think though if the market saw there was at least a down payment on the fiscal cliff, something agreed to be picked up after the first of the year, i think equity

prices would be eleased. if we see more polarization leading into the end of the year without any sign of anything getting done, i think that would weigh on equity prices. tracy: talk about what we should be doing because i think we're all kind of the notion this will not happen until december 31st, what could we do before that? should i move maybe my dividend paying stocks into my retirement account? >> you can do that under subject of limitations how much you can put into a retirement account in any given year and predicated whether you work for employer or are self-employed. that is one avenue, if you will of sheltering those growth stocks from taxation at some later point. it isn't going to do much to help you this year, in order to do that you would have to sell them and move the cash into the tax sheltered vehicle. but that said, i think it is prudent anytime to consider where you have sizable capital gains, taking some off the top, if you will and looking for opportunities to

reinvest, perhaps in other undervalued securities and increasingly we find better opportunities away from the u.s. in companies that are sporting much cheaper valuations than we do here. dennis: mark, if we do go over the cliff, will stocks plummet even more than they have? and if they do, should we buy? >> i think in terms of a technical reaction, 13,080 a line of demarcation which 1350 comes into play. i would suggest we probably could stand a haircut to equity prices something like we saw about a month ago where we were down flirting in the mid 1300s. i thinn more than that would be on the back of worsening economic data. after all the fiscal cliff is a manmade issue. i think actually resolution will be taking a little bit from both sides and coming somewhere in the middle which would likely translate into one, to 1 1/2% haircut to gdp in 2013 which is not enough to thwart e

economic expansion we have underway. dennis: all right. tracy: i guess if you want to call it economic expansion. mark luschini with janney montgomery scott. thank you, mark. dennis: on deck we have president obama taking questions on the cliff on twitter this hour. latest on negotiations or lack thereof coming up. tracy: did you tweet your question yet? dennis: not yet. tracy: higher taxes on the wealthy prompted an exodus from france and britain. will americans follow them to other countries? looks how oil is trading as we head out to break. pretty much flat. $89.08 a barrel. we'll be right back.

tracy: it is time to make money with charles payne. this hour we're taking a look at a farm cute -- pharmaceutical company in the green. points.own about three >> market is not looking good. this is called medicis company. it is not relativelily well-known. beat the street, 27%, 47%. they had a miss.

stock pulled back. they have three strong products. what i'm intrigued by is the proddct pipeline. they have anti-platelet agents that was reviewed by the university of munich. tremendous review. patients on the verge of having cardiac surgery got to get all that plavix out or counteract that. if this gets approved, three products in phase three which is step after that, new drug application. tracy: right. >> then you go to the market. if one of these gets approved i think the stock pops. certainly if this one gets approved i think it makes a pretty good move. even though they missed street last time they reported operating margins wouldn't from 11% to 7%. like to see a close above 22. i think it has room to 26. i would suggest 20 if anybody in the stock looking at it as potential stop loss. tracy: 22 right now. you want to see close here? >> i like to see volume build on it. i've seen this stock in the pass pop. it hit my radar not too long

ago. i've been waiting for a moment to look at for long entry. i think it is oversold here. it has a pretty tight rangingdtrading range. dennis: i never heard of the medicine company. some big drug guy going to be buy these guys? >> might be early in the game to say that. a lot of drug giants have lumber abouting products coming off patent approvals. you know what? acquisition a lot better than stafffng and r&d, if you can't make it buy it. >> exactly. they have cash. they are a good match. thank you guys later. i know you want to get back to those tweets. dennis: we should. more on the fiscal cliff. president up obama has taken to twitter answering fiscal cliff questions right now. looking to drum up support for his tax hike on the wealthiest americans. rich edson is in d.c. with the latest. rich? >> well, that a meeting with state governors tomorrow and nothing on the public schedule with congressional leaders.

negotiators are stuck on the administration's last proposal. 1.6 trillion in tax increases. 600 billion in spending reforms and more stimulus spending. republicans call it a joke. the white house says republicans need to step up with a plan. >> i would simply redirect that question to republican leaders who do this date have no put forward any proposal how they would achieve revenues, how they would address the issue that rates have to rise on the top 2%. >> house speaker john boehner says republicans are willing to discuss revenue increases through tax reform. the administration says they're open to tax reform as well but they want an immediate tax rate hike on wealthy americans. with only a few weeks left until hundreds of billions of automatic spending cuts and tax increases begin, congressional aides say there is still time to secure a deal but there is really no guaranty. back to you. dennis: thank you, rich edson. did not, did too. did not. did too.

that is what is sounds like. quarter after the hour almost, as we do every 15 minutes let's check markets. lauren simonetti. merger monday. >> merger monday. let's talk some deals. computer sciences selling its credit services unit to equifax for a billion dollars. that deal closing by the end of the year. both shares are up phenomenally on the news. in fact equifax hit an all-time high and computer sciences hii their highest level in over a year. two winners today. this merger monday. supervalu, the supermarket chain, shares surging 9%. "wall street journal" reporting thatter is brings capital management looking for some sort of a deal for the company. if they buy all it, that could value supervalu up to $5 billion. back to you. dennis: thank you, lauren. we'll check back with you in 15 minutes. tracy: coming up car sales jumped more than expected as several auto makers last month. so how the fiscal cliff could actually impact sales.

we'll have that ahead. dennis: first, here is how the dollar is moving right now.

>> at 18 minutes past the hour i'm lauren green with

your fox news minute. france and the u.k. sum mounting israeli envoys in protest f israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu plan to build 3,000 settlement homes in the west bank. they authorized the housing units a day after the palestinians were voted by the u.n. to status. despite international warnings, sources in the south korean government say the first stage of the rocket has been put in place suggesting a launch could come early as next week. that could coy inside with south korea's presidential elections. demonstrations raging in egypt as president mohammed morsi and the muslim brotherhood push through a new hard-line islamist constitution. egypt's high court suspending its work indefinitely when morsi's supporters prevented them from entering into the courthouse to rule on the constitution. those are the headlines. back to tracy. tracy: lauren green, thank

you very much. auto companies reporting strong november sales today. ford, chrysler, toyota and nissan and hyundai reported strong sales due to hurricane sandy. jeff flock is in chicago with more. hey, jeff. >> i think it is, sandy and we all thought it was going to be. now barclays and as well as ford said they think about 30,000 new vehicles more than normal were purchased as a result of hurricane sandy did. trashed a lot of cars out there. that is just the way it goes. some of course did better than others. here's the deal. there is a lot of reasons to buy a car right now. interest rates low. credit much more available. new technology out there sparking people to, you know, to buy new cars that have the new technology the old cars didn't. and the average age of a car right now, even ones that aren't underwater, 11 years old. so there you go. who were the big winners? well the fiat 500. look at brand that did

particularly well. fiat 500. the sales of that brand were up 123% this past month. honda was up 39%. cadillac up 30%. wv as a brand up 29%. who was up not as much? gm was up 3% but chevy brand was unchanged for the month. jeep brand was down 3% even though chrysler overall the group sales were up 15%. lincoln despite the fact ford was up 7% on the month, the lincoln brand was down 9%. we had alan mulally on earlier this morning talking about the reinvigoration of the lincoln brand. they will try to bring it back. they will have a big suuer bowl ad to go to twitter and people to brainstorm and come up with a good ad to go. they will spend money this time on the promotion of the lincoln brand. look for that as well. good month for auto sales. they don't care about the fiscal cliff in detroit. they have been over that cliff.

they have been there they did that. tracy: good luck with that though. unfortunately the lincoln is associated with your grandfather's car. they will need a lot of advertising. >> i'm ready to be a grandfather. i'm fine with that. tracy: ah. thanks, jeff. >> thanks. dennis: here with more on today's auto sales numbers we have jessica caldwell, senior analyst for edmunds.com. jessica, my gosh, we've got volkswagen up almost 30%, chrysler up 14%. even gm up 3.4%. this is a pretty good month, right? >> it's a pretty good month. we're looking at a really high start for the month of november. looks like it will be highest since we saw back in 2008 before we saw banks collapse and everything. i think a lot of reasons to be excited right now in the automotive industry. dennis: what brand sticks out to you or carmaker as a big winner doing far better than expected? >> i think honda this month. they had a rough year with

the civic came out last year getting panned by critics. also the inventory issue following the tsunami in japan. they are back. they have a new accord. a crv which is relatively new. they had a big launch at the la auto show reintroducing their civic. if you look at the tri-state area that was really affected by hurricane sandy, honda does very well. gave honda a good month for november. dennis: which carmaker was loser this time, did worse than expected? i think g. had has the most sluggish results up 3.4%? >> gm turned down incentive spending. most spent more but they spent less. this is critical time for trucks because of seasonality. people buy trucks when weather gets cooler. we saw them underperform in comparison to a lot of their direct competitors today. dennis: what is your total u.s. sales of cars rate running at now? 12 or 13 million?

didn't it peak at like 16 1/2 million a few years ago? >> before 2008 there was a long period of time where we sold over 16 million cars. since then that industry plummeted going to, 10, 11. this year looks like we'll end in the mid 14s but this month, over 15. so i think, it is a good sign of things to come. definitely a good sign for an industry that has been suffering the past few years. dennis: we've been hearing superstorm sandy would make people pull in their purchases because they're afraid of too much damage to the storm and fiscal cliff fears. there seems to be a disconnect between washington and wall street and consumers. >> right. i mean consumers buy cars. right now consumers like was mentioned in the news story have cars that are old. there is all these new cars coming out with new technology. -pa lot of great safety features in cars right now. so i think people, combination of having an older car, needing to replace a car and seeing their neighbors have the cars with great safety features are driving people to the dealership. doesn't matter what is going

on. the fact people need cars so they're buying them especially when credit is really available and interest rates are really low. that helps the consumer. dennis: do you see demand perhaps increasing if we get past this cliff thing into the new year? >> i think it is definitely possible. i mean, there is still a lot of pent-up demand out there. people have been holding off. i think we're only seeing beginning of what the market has in terms of its true potential it. i think once we get over the cliff talk although it is not affecting sales now it could be even better. dennis: all right. the slingshot economy, baby. nothing like the fear factor fading at some point to help us grow better and grow out of it. thank you so much, jessica caldwell. >> thank you, dennis. tracy: believe it or not rich people are fleeing britain and france to avoid higher taxes. so big question, are americans next? gerri willis is on that story. dennis: first take a look at some of the day's winners and losers. before copd...

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ashley: the white house releasing a photo of president obama tweeting about the fiscal cliff. so far his answers are a

blinding glimpse of the obvious. we will continue to monitor that. we will bring you the latest. you can also watch it on fox business.com. tracy: there is not that many. i am kind of surprised he has not gotten more questions. ashley: i think no one is bothering. tracy: the answers are pretty obvious. thirty past the hour. time to get a check on the markets. lauren simonetti on the floor. >> i do not know, we are struggling to stay near 13,000. >> there is a lot of time coming up between now and then. let's just try to get to the week where we are right now. everyone is talking about the fiscal cliff and the unemployment number. with the clouds over the market, i think investors will play it very tightly coming into year

end. there are people positioning themselves for next year. we cannot forget about the economic data that will help us into next year. i think it is important we get a good implement number here. >> what are you thinking for friday with the jobs report? >> i will not be too impressed with the number that is there. many factors out there, sandy and other weather, i do not think we will get something that we are happy with. >> what sectors do you like right now? >> the banks are more of a longer-term thing. regulation in d.c. will bring more transparency to the financial sector. investors want information. i think in longer terms, you will see spinoffs from companies. investors will want to be in that area. >> it seems like we can't, the

past couple days, at least, we cannot get out of these tight ranges. what takes us out of this tight range? >> about another six weeks. we will have to get into next year. europe will be quiet. it will be a little bit. >> thank you so much. back to you guys in the studio. tracy: good stuff. we will see you in 15 minutes. ashley: the commodities at the highest level in four months. sandra smith taking a look at how you should play in today's trade. sandra: really showing there is a lot of bullish momentum and polish sentiment in the commodity markets. gold hit a high. we told eggs -- wheat holdings hit their highest level since june. a lot of the news in china very

good. they bought a lot of grain and they bought a lot of gold. we are also looking at the commodity prices that are gaining a lot of attention because they have been rallying. gold has certainly come off the summer month lows. silver prices have bounced back. copper. this is a major play among hedge funds right now. a quick way to playback, guys, take a look at some of those old stocks. lots of analysts have been upgrading these shares to a buy rating ahead of the close of the year. some of the big miners, they are down double-digit so far in 2012. a lot of anticipation. these stocks may have to play catch-up with big yellow metal

itself. take a look at some of the meat producers. hormel and tyson. certainly, it has been seeing a rally along with copper prices. the news in china continues to get better and better. tracy and dennis. ashley: thank you so much, sandra. tracy: if you raise taxes on the rich, they will take in more money, right? here to sort it all out, our very own gerri willis. i found this story very interesting. you are saying they are just leaving the country. gerri: i want to show you the numbers. it is really, really impressive. the unintended consequences on

raising taxes on the wealthy, believe me, you do not want to go there. here is what happened. suddenly, the country reported 10,000 fewer billionaires. the numbers went from 16,000 to 6000. then, the collections went down as well. before the change, some billionaires contributed 9%. after this went into affect, they contributed just 4%. think about that. get more revenue, go where the money ii, it has to be with the wealthy people, but at the end of the day, it may not pay off the way you thought it would. ashley: i think in the u.s., california and new jersey has seen a wealth flee their states because they keep raising the income tax.

gerri: they do not have to stay where they are. they can plan around this stuff. they can move some income into an earlier tax year. tracy: they could sensibly do both. they are not collecting nearly as much as they want to. then the burden, again, falls on the middle class. dennis: do you know whether these billionaires willfully if you keep rates where they are, but after deductions? gerri: it is funny that you bring that up. there is this ongoing conversation about passing deductions or getting rid of the charitable deduction. this weekend we had an editorial writer say, this only benefits wealthy people. take that away. i think people misread how important these reductions are

to everybody. the tax code is ridiculously complicated. change the tax code entirely. simplify it. bring rates down. tracy: maybe you can have a few deductions and they will stick around. as long as there is a bad guy in town, why would i stay. gerri: there is the rhetoric that they are just not trying hard enough right now. tracy: if only i were rich. "the willis report" tonight at 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. i assume you will be talking about this. gerri: absolutely. 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. join us. dennis: 15% increase shopping online this year from last year. the two days after things giving went up as well.

tablets, smart phones and e-books and music downloads among the best sellers. tracy: i did my part to support online commerce yesterday. oil closing up $0.18 at $89.09 a barrel. that is well off the height of the day. dennis: i like oil under 100. it is good for the economy. tracy: coming up, is microsoft asking for trouble with its surface tablet which many say is way too pricey. shibani joshi is on that next. dennis: first, as we do every day, let's take a look at treasuries. ♪ want to try to crack it? yeah, th's theay to do it! now we need a little bit more... [ le announcer ] at humana, we understand the value of quality time and personal attention.

which is why we are proud to partner with health care professionals who understand the difference that quality time with our members can make... that's a ve nice cake! ohh! [ giggles ] [ male announcer ] humana thanks the physicians, nurses, hospitals, pharmacists and other health professionals who helped us achieve the highest average star rating among national medicare companies... and become the first and only national medicare advantage company to achieve a 5-star rating for a medire plan... yr efforts result in the quality ofare and service we're able to provide... which mes better health outcomes... and more quality time to share with the onewho matter most. i love you, grandma! [ male announcer ]umana. ♪

>> i am robert grave with your fox business brief. president obama has taken to twitter to answer questions about the fiscal cliff. the president is trying to drum up support for higher taxes on the wealthiest americans. selling is morningstar food unit two canadian company for $1.5 billion. they say it will help boost its presence in the u.s. fannie mae and freddie mac are putting evictions on homes for the holidays. it does not mean the foreclosure process will stop, but families will avoid eviction for two weeks ending january 2. that is the latest from the fox business network. giving you the power to prosper. ♪

tracy: former presidential candidate mitt romney has rejoined the board. governor romney has served on the board twice before. dennis: no word whether his bank account makes him less qualified of a candidate on that one. microsoft hoping to take a bite out of apple's ipad business. the high price could be more than some customers can swallow. shiiani joshi joins us now with a fabulous new haircut. shibani: you didn't notice last week, apparently. some backlash going on against microsoft today. you would think the company would price its new tablet line a little more aggressively considering it will have to compete with apple and its ipad. the company revealing a few months after the initial

appearance of the surface. they will come with a pretty hefty price tag associated with them. it is a 64 gigabyte model with a price tag at $899. the pro which is a 128 gigabyte model is $999. the 64 gigabyte ipod will run you $829 or $70 less than what microsoft is charging you. you can also bite and ipod mini for $329. it apparently is not trying to compete on price. they are focusing on the pretty interesting features that we all know is the stylist, keyboard and workforce capabilities. already getting early indications that the man for this new lineup of surface

tablet is already low. microsoft has already cut its order for the tablet in hhlf. from 4 million units to 2 million units. that is before they got on the market. dennis: thank you very much, shibani joshi. tracy: it will be an interesting holiday season. 193 countries are meeting in dubai for the united nation's internet conference. new rules are being proposed. the u.s. wants to limit oversight which could be used by countries like china to restrict controls on the internet. they also want to avoid a situation where each country has its own rules, which would make it much harder for companies to do business across the world. dennis: it ain't going to work.

it is a quarter till. time for stocks now. let's head down to lauren simonetti. >> let's talk about the healthcare sector. the hospital operator shares are up. announcing a special dividend. the third one. it will be payable by the end of the year. obviously, another company trying to avoid the fiscal cliff. also, let's talk hma. shares are down big time. you know the reason why. allegations that doctors were pressure to admit more patients. they call that report on "60 minutes" inaccurate. they expect more investigations going forward. big losers today. back to you. dennis: thank you. tracy: we are falling a little bit more. with taxes going up, tax-free muni bonds are all the rage.

we will have tips on how to find some good ones next. dennis: first, some of today's winners and losers. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' rst day of work. and his new boss told him twongs -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it y, but he'll wk his way up from busser to wter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. hel start investing early,

he'll find some good people to help guide him, nde'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

dennis: over 100 companies are paying special dividend. this is before the tax rate on dividends could more than double in january. liz macdonald is here. >> already munis has downgraded nearly a third. borrowed money to issue special dividend. in other words, do it before tte end of the year. in fact, half of the deals out there, in october, worked for special dividend. i will tell you something, it is pretty interesting, you have special dividend, that is a

clear indication that these companies think the hike is coming. munis has already downgraded companies. costco. s&p downgraded. the issue is, you know, are they doing the right thing by issuing the special dividend growth stock i know you guys, we were just talking about this, companies are fresh with cash. is this the best way to do it? the insiders saying, well, we will take the risk. walmart is getting sweet dividends right now. certainly, the board of costco is getting dinged in the media right now because of former ceo and cofounder saying america's should pay their fair share in taxes. they have issued a special dividend to save taxes. this is getting company credit

downgrades, but also media attention and negative criticism out there. tracy: i do not agree with it. put more debt on your balance sheet just to issue a dividend before a potential, not even in stone, tax hike. dennis: this is a way of accelerating it. the other thing is, i think it is a private stimulus plan. people have cash to spend and not a single bit of it came from taxpayer dollars. tracy: what if i am a shareholder. , do i want my company to have more debt on their balance sheets but that

money belongs to shareholders. >> it is and inttresting debate. dennis: liz macdonald, great answers. tracy: right now muni bonds are tax exempt. our next guest says there is still value to be found. joining us now, jack hough. they are very popular right now so the prices have come up and yields have gone down. >> everyone has the same good idea at the same time and it is no longer a good idea. everyone thinks they will get on tax-free bonds this year. the problem is, that is already priced in. you have to be very careful going into this tax-free bond market. if you are getting in late, at this stage, you cannot just use a scattered approach. tracy: before we get into your

column, let's talk about the notion that we may see a tax increase or tax changes to the muni bond world. >> a lot of variables. there could be something different that happens with muni bond interest. the deal is, the interest that they pay is tax-free for investors. that is supposed to load the barring rates for these states and municipalities. if something changes, if the deal is broken, but existing bonds get grandfathered in, they become more valuable in the eyes of the investors. the prices of them will shoot up. tracy: they do have to do a little analysis there. why not, at that point-- even after tax, i am so coming out

with more cash in my pocket. >> the numbers on this potential tax change will really make you scratch your head. we tax them innorder to raise more revenue. if that makes them more expensive for municipalities to borrow pit where is that extra money coming from? it is coming from the taxpayers. tracy: we have your tips and we will put them up. some of the things i thought were really interesting is you say do not buy all home estate bonds. >> you can buy in any state. you get the federal tax rate. the only thing is, you want to be sure to diversify from state to state. you want to be careful if your state falls into financial trouble. just how much you want to put on your home state is how high the tax rates are and how high the

beauty stakes are. some of these other states, connecticut and rhode island, not quite as healthy of an economy. tracy: really quickly, where do i find these bond, though? >> if you are at a big discount firm, you can call of, but you have to know what you want. this is not a market where you want to go at it if you are not experienced. you have to find an experienced bond broker to go through. tracy: jack hough, thank you very much for being here. dennis: crisply done good next up for your viewing pleasure, lori rothman takes us through the next hour of trading. find out why renowned harvard economist says a recession may be in the cards even if the u.s.

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